My first morning of my visit to Sensei Porcupine Creek in Rancho Mirage, California, I stepped out of my secluded casita and took a deep breath.

Above me tall jacaranda showed off their huge, purple flower clusters. Below me, their petals spread out like a soft carpet. The scent mingled with the countless other tropical plants and lush greens.

This, I thought, is everything.

Sensei Porcupine Creek (sensei.com/retreats/porcupine-creek/), the new California wellness retreat, is a bucket list experience. It’s an  escape designed to be transformative.

The Sensei program uses Porcupine Creek’s 230 acres like a poshed-up base camp. Their staff – from the hosts who greet you by name to the waitstaff who create the perfect custom menu for you, to the top tier fitness, mindfulness and health guides – aim to send you home with a sense of who you are, who you want to be and a written plan to follow that path.

It’s expensive and exclusive. But it’s also worth it.

Porcupine Creek was the exclusive private escape of billionaire Tim Blixseth in 2004. In 2011, Oracle founder Lawrence Ellison purchased it.

Tucked away in the desert just above Rancho Mirage, its main house, casitas, pool area, fitness studio and yoga pavilion and pristine golf course and driving range were not accessible to the public; you could only catch a glimpse of it by hiking up a nearby mountainside.

Ellison had an idea: transform it into a retreat with his Sensei co-founder Dr. David Agus (they both inspired and created the Sensei Lanai, part of the Four Seasons there).

They opened in 2022 and it brings in guests who love not just relaxing and dining well, but focusing on better living.

They offer a menu of packages. I chose to combine golf and wellness, since I’m working at bettering my game. But, in my pre-visit phone call with Brooke, the Sensei guide who would oversee my visit, I set a broader intention: Coming into my retirement years, how can I set myself up to live what I believe should be the best years of my life?

Sensei Porcupine Creek is also all about pampering. Meals are prepared by Nobu Matsuhisa-trained chefs and can be taken in their Nobu at Sensei dining room, their casual sushi bar or – and I loved this: at one of the many tables scattered about the resort property. Just sit down under a tree, next to the pool, off by the mountain view – wherever you spot a table – and staff appears to bring you what you desire.

From the prettiest and most delicious avocado toast I’ve ever savored to creative sushi to true A5 Wagyu beef, they do food right.

The pool area is serene; you are often the only one there. And the landscape? All but one plant is imported; most from Hawaii (a love of Ellison’s). Colors pop, lush green soothes and even at night, the vegetation captivates you.

My casita was spacious, with a shower and wooden soaking tub that are top-spa worthy, heated Toto commodes that open and close for you, and my own private hot tub area.

The spa treatments are over the top – like the four handed massage or the desert-ingredient rub that soothed my skin and my soul.

All this, of course, comes with a price. Rooms with packages start at nearly $2,000 a night, and the clientele reflects that. But no one is snooty; far from it. By the end of my stay, I’m hugging the other guests like we were camp bunkmates. Two young adult sisters who were delightful announced as I was leaving, “We’ve got to clap her out!”

Once home, I received detailed reports from all I’d met with, including health data (they utilize WHOOP to track you before, during and after your stay), meditation tips (I’m going to try it) and actionables to not only better my golf game but up the ante for this next part of my life.

Nobu-trained chef-created meals — even breakfast — make the visit delicious and beautiful, like this inspired avocado toast with egg whites and lemon juice. (Photo Moira McCarthy)

The flora is captivating both day and night. (Photo Moira McCarthy)

You’ll have the palm-shaded pool to yourself — or nearly to yourself — almost all the time at Sensei. (Photo by Moira McCarthy)